The Lower House of the United States, under Democratic control, supported this Friday an initiative to ban assault weapons in the country, which has little sign of prospering in the Senate, where progressives have a slim majority.
With 217 votes in favor and 213 against, the House of Representatives endorsed this proposal, presented by the Democratic legislator for Rhode Island David Cicilline, before going into recess during August.
Almost the entire Democratic caucus except five legislators voted in favor of the initiative against the opposition of the majority of Republicans, of whom only two supported it.
The proposal seeks to penalize the sale, manufacture, transfer, possession and import of various types of semi-automatic weapons and high-range ammunition, after the shootings of recent months in the country, where in some cases assault rifles were used.
After the announcement of the result of the vote by the president of the Lower House, Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats were engulfed in an ovation.
During the previous debate, Pelosi stated that each year more children in the US die from gun violence than from any other cause, such as cancer or traffic accidents.
He recalled that assault weapons "have been used in one massacre after another" in the country and that in many cases they have targeted minors.
The president of the Lower House also showed an advertisement for an assault weapon designed to be used by minors.
This type of weapon has been used in the deadliest shootings in recent years, such as the one last May in Uvalde (Texas), where 19 children and 2 adults died, and the one at Sandy Hook in Newtown (Connecticut), where 20 minors and 6 teachers lost their lives in 2012.
The vote in Congress came at a time when the final phase of the trial of the confessed author of the massacre of 17 people at a Parkland (Florida) high school in 2018, who also used an assault weapon, is being held.
The United States passed a federal ban on assault weapons in the country in 1994, but in 2004 it expired without Congress renewing it.
During the debate, Pelosi assured that during those 10 years of prohibition violence with assault weapons was reduced by 40% and that after that veto expired it has shot up by 500%.
Last June, the US House of Representatives approved a historic, albeit minimal, deal to tighten gun control across the board.
This initiative includes a review of the purchase process for those under 21 years of age and extends the so-called "danger alert" ("Red Flag") laws to the entire country, which allow the activation of a legal procedure to confiscate firearms from who represent a danger to third parties or to themselves.
